Drill collar handling sub



Jan. 2, 1962 w. E. oAKEs DRILL COLLAR HANDLING SUB Filed Aug 1l, 1960 INVENTOR United States Patent O" 3,015,512 DRILL COLLAR HANDLING SUB William E. Oakes, 11415 67th St., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Filed Aug. 11, 1960, Ser. No. 48,979 1 Claim. (Cl. 294-1) This invention relates to a drill collar handling sub as employed in oillield drilling operations for the purpose of lifting and handling of drill collars.

Drill collars are employed to give weight to the ldrill bit in oileld drilling equipment, as well as to stabilize the drill string while drilling. They are made in various sizes and used in a combina-tion of sizes. For instance, in drilling a 121/f inch diameter hole, as many as three 1l inch outside diameter, three 9 inch outside diameter, and twelve to ifteen 7 inch outside diameter collars will `be used.

Drill collar lifting subs are used extensively to assemble the drill collars and raise and lower them out of and into the hole. The great lweight of the drill collar string (40 to 50 tons) is borne by the cap of the lifting sub. If the cap should receive a jar or shock, the cap and stem can, and sometimes does, break apart from overloading or metal fatigue. T'nis results in the drill collars falling into the hole with resultant interruption of operations as well as possible injury to the drilling personnel from falling metal.

lt is an object of this invention to provide a drill collar lifting sub which is of simple and convenient manufacture, which has much greater resistance to failure in use while having reduced weight, and which possesses means preventing the separation of parts therefrom as a result of breaking of the stem thereof to avoid falling of such parts.

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

HGURE 1 is a sectional side elevation of a drill collar lifting sub in accordance with the invention, and

FGURE 2 is a section on 'line 2-2 of FIGURE 1.

Referring to the drawing, the sub shown comprises a stem 1 having a cap 2 at one end and an externally ythreaded portion 3 at the other end for application thereto of a drill collar.

The stem has an axial bore 4 the end section 5 of which within threaded portion 3 being of conical or tapered form. Thus, section 5 is of gradually decreasing diameter from the adjacent end ofthe bore.

A socket member 6 has an annular shoulder 7 seated on ythe end of cap 2 and a cylindrical portion 8 extending into the bore 4. An eye 9 is xed to member 6 to provide means for lifting and handling of the sub.

A wire or cable line 10 has one end anchored in socket member 6. This may be effected by providing a conical socket 11 in member 6, partially separating the strands of the wire line within socket 11 and embedding the wire strands in a suitable seizing compound 12.

The wire line 10 extends axially through bore 4 and its other end is anchored in an externally threaded socket member 13 as by means of a conical socket 14 in the member and seizing compound 15.

Means for placing the wire line 10 under tension comprises a locknut 16 having an external tapered surface 17 complementary to and in engagement with tapered section 5 and internally threaded at 18 for threaded engagement with socket member 13. Locknut 16 is split at Patented Jan. 2, 1962 ice 19 whereby it may expand m a result of rotation thereof and axial movement inwardly of the socket member 13 to place the line 10 under tension. It will be apparent that, since the nut is split lengthwise on one side only, it will tighten against the tapered bore section and lock on the thread of the socket member.

While dimensions may vary, preferably the Wire line 10 is at least 11/4" diameter with a breaking strength of at least 14,000 lbs.

The prestressing of the wire line gives a compression effect to the stern of the sub Iwhich permits the wire line to take the load along with the stem and reduces the eifect of shock loading on the stem. For instance, the line within the stem of a sub used for larger drill collars may have approximately 90,000 llbs. breaking strength. This would be prestressed to approximately 50,000 lbs. at which it is locked by nut 16.

It will be apparent that the `drill collar lifting sub described Will possess much greater strength while being of Iless weight than a conventional sub of solid stem. If the stern should break during use, the parts thereof will not separate due to the presence of the wire line thereby avoiding possible injury by falling metal to personnel on the drilling door as well as the need for fishing for drill collars in the hole.

The sub described will also possess a longer useful life because of less fatigue imposed thereon.

The provision of an eye on the line socket member 11 results in greater handling ease with increased safety.

Moreover, use of the sub described prevents gas blowing out through a sub vwhile drill collars are being lifted out of the hole.

1 claim: Y

A drill collar handling sub comprising a rigid metal stem having a cap at one end -and an externally threaded portion at the other end thereof, said stem having an axial bore extending therethrough, a wire line extending axially through said bore, and means for prestressing said wire line and for maintaining said wire line under tension comprising a socket member seated on said stem `at each end thereof, said wire line having each of its ends em- -bedded in and fixed to one of said socket members, one of said socket members having a shoulder seated on the end of said stern adjacent said cap, and a handling eye xed to said shoulder, the other of said socket members being of substantially cylindrical externally threaded form, said bore having a tapered section lying within said threaded end portion of said stem, said tapered section being of gradually decreasing diameter from the adjacent end of said stem, and an expansible locknut having threaded engagement with said threaded socket member and also having a tapered outer surface complementary to and in engagement with said tapered section.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,342,855 McCausland lune 8, 1920 1,544,041 Schirnhofer lune 30, 1925 1,544,659 Lawson July 7, 1925 1,845,061 Schmalz Feb. 16, 1932 1,939,968 Frei Dec. 19, 1933 2,043,357 Strauss June 9, 1937 2,473,417 Essl June 14, 1949 2,571,145 Lord Oct. 15, 1951 2,803,486 Larson et al. Aug. 20, 1957 

